Florida newspapers are reporting two separate yellow cardinal sightings this week within five minutes of each other, about 17 miles apart on Florida’s Atlantic coast.
Florida’s Treasure Coast Newspapers reports that one woman in Palm City, Fla. spotted a yellow cardinal while talking on the phone with her daughter at 1:43 p.m. Thursday. The bird left around 20 minutes later, at 2:06 p.m., she said. Meanwhile, a second woman reported seeing a yellow cardinal that same afternoon in Port St. Lucie, around 17 miles away. The metadata from her digital camera said a photo of the bird was taken at 2:03 p.m.
Yellow cardinals are male northern cardinals with a genetic mutation that blocks the pigment that normally turns their feathers the usual bright red color. Instead, these birds display with the usual markings of a male cardinal, but with bright yellow feathers instead of red.
Auburn University ornithologist Geoffrey Hill, who wrote a textbook about unusual bird colorations, said it’s unlikely the women were photographing the same bird because cardinals don’t typically fly over distances that large over such a short timespan.
Hill has described the mutation that leads to this yellow coloration as a “one in a million” mutation, by using fairly simple math. There are roughly 3 million northern cardinals in the United States, and until recently, Hill said nationwide there were about three sightings per year.
In response to the latest sightings, Hill said it’s possible that more sightings are being reported now thanks to news reports, social media and widely available digital cameras.
“There could be more but I think more likely is everybody’s looking now because of the press coverage and the awareness,” Hill said. “You know, number one, people are looking for them. And number two, they’re reporting on when they see.”
Hill said it’s also possible that the mutation is more common in that area of Florida. A yellow cardinal was spotted last year in Port St. Lucie, just north of Palm City.
“There’s a lot of cardinals in that region,” Hill told the TCPalm. “It’s possible that the allele in that area of Florida is more likely to appear.”
Alabama’s yellow cardinal, Mr. Yellow grabbed worldwide headlines in 2018 after photographer Jeremy Black’s images and video of the unusual bird went viral and helped elevate awareness of the unusual mutation.
Mr. Yellow has continued to live around Alabaster, with periodic sightings over two years. Black and Charlie Stephenson, the homeowner who first recognized the yellow cardinal for what it was, last saw Mr. Yellow in December.
After that a yellow cardinal was spotted in south Alabama, near Theodore, plus sightings in Georgia, Florida and Pennsylvania.
“I’m pretty sure it’s because everybody’s looking now,” Hill said. “Some people really want to find the yellow cardinal. I say, look, I spent my entire life looking at cardinals and I’ve never seen one, so you’re not going to just look out your window and see one, very likely.”